SNOWFLAKE MELTDOWN
Equalities tsar orders blitz on ‘no-platform’ students who try to bar free speech
UNIVERSITIES could face legal action if they allow student zealots to ban speakers from campuses just because they dislike their views.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission is drawing up tough new guidance telling university bosses to crack down on undergraduates who restrict free speech.
It is understood the commission will consider backing banned speakers if they sue vice- chancellors for allowing activists to bar them from addressing student unions or organisations.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, the commission’s chief executive, said the
‘Universities risk stifling future generations’
clampdown was needed to combat a ‘growing culture’ of snowflake students stifling open debate.
Curbs on free speech on campuses would create ‘a generation of students who can’t challenge opinions or think for themselves’, she claimed. The move comes after: High-profile figures including feminist Germaine Greer and gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell faced attempts to ‘ no- platform’ them – the term used when students formally bar speakers or withdraw their invitations after protests against their views.
Undergr a d u a t e s a t Oxf o r d demanded that a statue of Cecil Rhodes be removed because of his imperialism, and Professor Nigel Biggar was pilloried for suggesting that the Empire was not all bad.
Universities introduced ‘trigger warnings’ and ‘ safe spaces’ to shield over-sensitive students from views and language they might find upsetting, and student unions have even banned the wearing of sombreros because it is ‘racist’.
The news also follows the creation by Universities Minister Jo Johnson of the Office for Students, a new regulatory body that has the power to fine or deregister universities that fail to protect free speech. The commission, which was set up to poli ce t he l ast Labour Government’s Equalities Act 2006, will tell universities later this month that they are legally obliged to uphold freedom of expression that does not promote extremism or ‘hate speech’.
It will publish more specific guidelines on the contentious issue of ‘no-platforming’ by April after consulting the National Union of Students, the Office for Students and the umbrella organisation Universities UK.
A survey conducted last year found that free speech had been restricted at more than 90 per cent of British universities.
In 2016 alone, speakers were barred from events at more than 20 colleges because of fears their views might upset minorities.
Ms Hilsenrath said: ‘Universities are an ideal space for people to formulate, express, defend and hone t heir t heories about t he world. But if these theories are to be developed into valid arguments, they need to be appropriately challenged.
‘By restricting honest, constructive and open debates about subj ects which ot hers may f i nd difficult or uncomfortable to digest, universities risk stifling future generations and allowing unpleasant theories to spread unopposed.
‘Just because we don’t like their opinions does not mean they are not entitled to have them.’ Left-wing feminist Linda Bellos was recently invited to speak to a student organisation in Cambridge but had her invitation withdrawn after complaints over her views on transgender campaigners. She said: ‘We should be getting students to understand why they should be challenging ideas rather than excluding them. But I am not sure a government diktat is the best
way to achieve that.’